Sareum Holdings plc (AIM: SAR), the specialist cancer drug discovery and development business, is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement (the “Agreement”) with a China-based specialty pharmaceutical company (the “Licensee).

Under the terms of the Agreement, the Licensee has been granted an exclusive worldwide licence to develop, manufacture and commercialise certain small molecule inhibitors of FLT3+Aurora kinases including Sareum’s lead candidate SAR-20293 (together the “Compounds”), which has shown potential in preclinical models of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and other leukaemias.

The Licensee is principally engaged in research and development, production and sales of innovative drugs, including oncology drugs, in China and is listed on the main market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Under the terms of the Agreement, the Licensee will fund all future development activities in relation to the Compounds and has been granted sole rights to market any resulting products worldwide.

Sareum will receive an initial upfront payment of approximately £50,000. A further payment of approximately £0.9 million will be payable to Sareum if certain milestones related to the oral bioavailability of the Compounds are achieved within nine months from the date of the Agreement (the “Development Payment”).

Sareum will assign certain patents in respect of the Compounds to the Licensee upon receipt of the Development Payment. The Agreement may be terminated with immediate effect if Sareum does not receive the Development Payment within nine months of the date of the Agreement.

Sareum will also be entitled to receive a future milestone payment in the event that an Investigational New Drug or equivalent application is made in China or any other country.

Under the Agreement, Sareum is also eligible to receive certain revenues from the commercialisation of the products by the Licensee outside of China. In addition, Sareum would be eligible to receive commercialisation revenues relating to their commercialisation should the Licensee execute an on-licence of the Compounds and resulting products to a third party.

Since all research and development expenditure is written off as it occurs, in line with standard industry practise, the Compounds covered by the Agreement are held at nil value on Sareum’s balance sheet.

Sareum was advised and assisted on this agreement by Cambridge (UK)-based technology brokerage company – Link China Pharma Solutions. We have managed to get this deal negotiated less than six months period which is a remarkable achievement and a record-breaking time period as our previous record was just over six months for negotiating the Dutch company China licensed co-development partnership deal.

Sareum’s CEO, Dr Tim Mitchell, commented:“We are delighted with this important global licensing deal for our FLT3+Aurora inhibitor programme, which could generate significant milestone revenue in the next nine months. We believe the Licensee has the resources and expertise to further advance these molecules through the clinic to commercialisation in China.”

“With this programme now partnered, we are wholly focused on advancing the development of our proprietary TYK2/JAK1 inhibitors through preclinical studies and look forward to providing updates as material milestones are reached.”

About Link China Pharma Solutions

Link China Pharma Solutions (“LCPS”) is a UK Cambridge based dedicated technology brokerage and services provider bringing in-depth China industry experience and market knowledge to provide a range of specialist services to promote research co-operation, technology transfer and business collaboration between China and UK/EU/GLOBAL life science research institutes, biotech and pharmaceutical companies to maximize the value of research and business alliances. LCPS brings in-depth industry experience and global market knowledge to support UK/EU/GLOBAL small, medium and large biopharmaceutical and life science companies to build the collaboration with Chinese partners and provide a full suite of services from strategy alignment, partnership selection, collaborative partnering, outsourcing transaction in drug discovery and development, clinical trial, contract manufacturing, to China market entry and development so that our clients can minimize the cost, gain the competitive advantage in the global market and place themselves well ahead to access one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical markets in the world.

Due to the latest very serious difficulties and challenges COVID-19 pandemic presented to global biotech and pharmaceutical companies, Link China Pharma Solutions has devised special options to help SMEs for China partnership finding, sourcing CRO/CMO/CDMO services, CE Marked Test and PPE kits etc. Please drop an email to contact: info@chinapharma.co.uk